So, I finally made some time to sit down and really enjoy this tea and I’d like to think it was worth it!
I followed the instructions on Verdant’s site, once again (boiling water; very short, frequent infusions; a LOT of tea (6 g for 140 ml water), including a very quick rinse). I can’t stress enough how wonderful the dry leaves smelled – so floral and fragrant.
The wet leaves were suddenly a LOT more vegetal. The same was true of the first two infusions (6" and 8" respectively). The tea had a lovely jasmine-like aroma, still, and was a pale-gold colour.
Infusions 3-12(and, tbh, it probably could have gone for a good few more, but I really think I’ve had enough for one day…!) were much more to my liking – these were 8-10" until the 8th steep, 9 was 16" (too weak), 10 and 11 were 30" (good) and 12 was 60" (excellent). These infusions were all deliciously floral, light and refreshing. No bitterness at all and had low astringency. In colour, they ranged from pale-gold to, for the later steeps, pale-green.
The latter steeps were particularly sweet and floral, excluding the slightly rubbish 8th and 9th ones (though I only have myself to blame for that – the leaves had been resting for 3 hours between the 6th and 7th steeps – the 7th was great because of all of the flavour retained on the leaves, but I should have ramped up the times a fair bit afterwards. Still, I live and learn). The 7th steep also had a very gentle buttery flavour, which was most welcome. Really delicious.
Definitely glad I gave this one a try :D Now that I have this delightful green oolong to use as a benchmark, in the Gaiwan, I think I can finally set about doing some Gong Fu brews of some of my Butiki oolongs – they all smell so wonderful (though very different) that I’m sure I’ll love them all too.
Flavors: Floral, Jasmine, Orchid, Vegetal
